› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Russia signed a treaty banning bio-weapons, but ignored the treaty and continued developing them - even building ICBMs that could be loaded with weaponized smallpox, anthrax, typhus & rabies. After the fall of the USSR, they lost most of the bioweapons. Their locations remain unknown.

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KOp1Q TIL that in the 60s not only could you advertise cigarettes on television, but you could have cartoon characters be the pitchmen. For example, The Flintstones endorsed Winston cigarettes.
mD6x TIL that the idea that people used to think that the world was flat is actually a modern misconception and “with extraordinary few exceptions no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the Earth was flat”
PYDkJ TIL Vegemite, a food spread made of leftover brewery yeast, was banned in some Australian prisons to prevent inmates from making moonshine. Also, because Vegemite's high concentration of ions and water can be used to conduct electricity, it's currently being researched to make edible medical sensors
oRM1E TIL that on the planet Mercury there is a crater named after George Balanchine because it looks like one of his tutus.
KOOZQ TIL there was an anti-gang unit in the LAPD that had ties to the Bloods. Over 70 officers were implicated in misconduct like shooting civilians, robbing banks, beating suspects (or worse), stealing cocaine, and framing civilians. Some believe the unit was involved in the murder of Biggie Smalls.